Real Estate 101 and Beyond

​I was recently invited by the host of Real Estate Live! with Michele the "Queen of Real Estate Radio" to discuss a few topics of interest to investors. Video of the show is posted to YouTube. Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=2zndUd4pHbM

I recently had a conversation with a great investor from Ohio. He had hired a company based in Las Vegas to draft a trust document, and a bunch of other stuff to help him on his journey into wholesaling. He was kind enough to let me see the trust document created for him. There was no mention of any statute from any state saying that this document was a trust under the laws of....X. There were no instructions telling him to put that language in the Deed that would place property into the trust, and for some reason the seller was named as a party to his trust. Basically, this guy just had a weird contract that allowed his seller to still have an interest in the property - even after he gave them funds to close. At the risk of sounding harsh- this guy was taken advantage of, and he would need a ton of experience to be able to manipulate these documents into something workable. I know I always say, "A trust is just a piece of paper" which is true, but it's a legal piece...

I held a Facebook Live event that was a general Q&A on land trusts. Click the link below for the play back. Also, to be sure you don't miss more Live events like the FaceBook group Land Trusts for Investors and Richards Law Firm for details on upcoming events. Live Land Trust Q &A Event Play Back

Richards Law Firm has chosen the Ronald McDonald House of Central Florida as our 2016 Christmas Charity . Will you help us make the Holidays for these families a little easier? We will be collecting items from guests wish lists, monetary donations and unwrapped toys. Please help us make the holidays a little easier for these families. Monetary Donations: Did you know RMHCF asks guests to pay only $20 for a one night stay, but even that is burdensome considering the mounting legal bills these families face? We have set up a secure client portal to accept monetary donations via credit card or electronic check. To access the portal, go to www.mycase.com . Log in to the secure portal by using the username: richardslawfirmpa@gmail.com and password: Christmas2016. You will see a link to invoice #00111. Click the link and just key in the amount of your donation. That amount will be deducted from the goal you see on the invoice. Easy! Guest Wish Lists: * Indicates URG...

As promised, here are the cliff notes for a recent 4 th District Court of Appeals case that interpreted the Lis Pendens statute and how it applied to a foreclosure case. Warning: its super boring, dry, legal talk, but if you purchase foreclosure properties it is a MUST READ. The basic timeline for the facts of this case are as follows: -         Bank filed a Lis Pendens (LP)  against a property they were foreclosing. -      .  Sometime around September 2008 the bank obtained a final judgment -        Beginning in July of 2009 – October 2011 the Town recorded 7 liens against the property for various code violations. -        The house sold at auction in 2012. -         In 2013, James Ober, the winning bidder at foreclosure auction filed suit to quiet title, attempting to strike the Town liens against his property. The case trudged t...

  The State of Florida is famous for having one of the most generous homestead exemptions in the country. With that said, very few Floridians need their primary residence to be placed in a trust, but for those of us that just prefer to hold real estate in a land trust for other reasons and for those outside of Florida, this post will cover how to claim homestead exemption on your property that is in a trust.   Everyone from real estate agents, attorneys and even the property appraiser’s office have told me a property placed in a land trust is not entitled to homestead exemptions, but that is not true so don't take no for an answer. The Florida Attorney General wrote an opinion way back in 2008 discussing this very subject. “ … it is my opinion that section 689.071, Florida Statutes, would confer upon a beneficiary of a land trust a sufficient possessory interest to support a homestead tax exemption if the person otherwise qualifies by residence for the exemption in se...

Ya’ll know me, I like to get straight to the point and answer the question. Those of you wishing for a little more detail can read the entire article for my mundane analysis as to the why.  Warning: The “why” for this particular post is especially boring. Question: Does placing a property in a land trust prevent a lender from calling a loan due under the due on sale clause per Garn-St. Germain? Answer: No, the use of a land trust (as used by real estate investors) will not prevent a lender from calling a loan due when there is a change in title via a land trust. The key to this answer is the part where I said, “as used by real estate investors”. Investors like the idea of purchasing property “subject to” the loan due to the deal structure requiring little to no money down, no big down payment, no loan qualification, no financing costs, etc. I get it. The problem with this investment strategy is that once title is transferred without the loan being paid off ...